''The Wife's Relief, or, The Husband's Cure'' is a 1711
comedy play
Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...
by the British writer
Charles Johnson. The plot revolves around a virtuous wife who tries to mend her husband's
rakish
In a historical context, a rake (short for rakehell, analogous to "hellraiser") was a man who was habituated to immoral conduct, particularly womanizing. Often, a rake was also prodigal, wasting his (usually inherited) fortune on gambling, w ...
ways.
[Gollapudi p.77]
The cast included
Robert Wilks
Robert Wilks (''c.'' 1665 – 27 September 1732) was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the ...
as Volatil,
Colley Cibber
Colley Cibber (6 November 1671 – 11 December 1757) was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir ''Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber'' (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling ...
as Riot,
Anne Oldfield
Anne Oldfield (168323 October 1730) was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time.
Early life and discovery
She was born in London in 1683. Her father was a soldier, James Oldfield. Her mother was either Anne or Eliz ...
as Arabella,
Barton Booth
Barton Booth (168210 May 1733) was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.
Early life
Booth was the son of The Hon and Very Revd Dr Robert Booth (priest), Robert Booth, Dean of Bristol, by his first wife ...
as Horatio,
Thomas Doggett
Thomas Doggett (or Dogget) (20 September 1721) was an Irish actor. The birth date of 1640 seems unlikely. A more probable date of 1670 is given in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
Biography
Doggett was born in Dublin, and made his first stage app ...
as Sir Tristram Cash,
Lacy Ryan
Lacy Ryan (c. 1694–1760), English actor, appeared at the Haymarket Theatre about 1709.
Life
By 1718 he had joined the company at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he shared the lead with his friend James Quin. He took leading roles in ''Richard ...
as Valentine,
Henry Norris as Spitfire,
Christopher Bullock
Sir Christopher Llewellyn Bullock, KCB, CBE (10 November 1891 – 16 May 1972), a prominent member of the Bullock family, was Permanent Under-Secretary at the British Air Ministry from 1931 to 1936. Appointed at the age of 38, he remains one o ...
as Hazard,
Mary Willis
Mary Willis was a British stage actress of the eighteenth century.
She was the daughter of the actress Elizabeth Willis and sometimes appeared alongside her billed as Miss Willis. Like her mother she spent a number of years in the company at th ...
as Teraminta and
Jane Rogers as Cynthia. It lasted seven nights, considered a good run for a play at the time.
References
Bibliography
* Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992.
* Gollapudi, Aparna. ''Moral Reform in Comedy and Culture, 1696–1747''. Ashgate Publishing, 2013.
* Nicoll, Allardyce. ''History of English Drama, 1660-1900, Volume 2''. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
1711 plays
West End plays
Plays by Charles Johnson
Comedy plays
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